Month: December 2010

I think I have finally found a suitable pump for our new aquaponics system. Not that the MD5 pump won’t do the job, but I haven’t found one for sale in Europe. The pump I found earlier is an internal one and the head of the Fish Department (my girlfriend 😉 ) would prefer if

Month: December 2010

My potato growing experiment is going really well. The small potato plant is growing like crazy beneath its 36 W neon tube grow light. This picture was taken 14 days after I covered the lonely tuber with dirt: After a thorough hoeing the stem is covered with dirt: Hopefully this will encourage the plant to

Month: December 2010

I like working with MDF boards (medium-density fibre boards) because you can cut out sharp and clean edges that’ll fit together perfectly: It’s easy to drill holes for screws and the screw heads can easily be buried resulting in a cool overall look of the aquaponic plant tank: The tank is heavy though, maybe a

Month: December 2010

The aquaponic plant tank is made from MDF boards assembled with 35 mm (1.4 inch) screws: I’m drilling a hole for each screw and using a larger drill to bury the head of the screw. The screws are actually drywall screws and it’s probably not 100% technically correct to use these (whatever that means 😉

Month: December 2010

I’ve finished the table-like structure for the plant tank for the new aquaponic system. This structure is going to hold up the plant tank about 20 cm (8 inch) higher than the fish tank. Hopefully there’ll be enough room for the venturi aeration port between the bottom of the plant tank and the top of

Month: December 2010

Aquaponic systems need a fish tank and a separate plant tank. I had to choose between buying an existing, prefabricated tank or building my own custom tank. I couldn’t find an existing one that would fit into the space available for the system so I’m building my own. If the plant tank has the same

Month: December 2010

Early potatoes… Well, exactly how early is that? I mean, early potatoes are from this year, right? So in theory the earliest potatoes one could get would be from January 1. I haven’t got a garden patch and there’s snow everywhere, but I do have a bucket, a big bag o’ peat moss and a

Month: December 2010

Now that everything outside the house is covered with a thick layer of snow it’s nice to have something to work on indoors. Our new fish tank has been placed on the custom designed furniture. It’s pretty robust but it has to be since it will be holding up 325 liters (86 gallons) of water:

Month: December 2010

Two and a half months ago I planted a single potato in a pot just for fun: A month ago small leaves broke the soil and in the last month the potato plant grew like crazy: Now this is not a normal looking potato plant – the problem is that the pot has been placed